End Of 21th Century Research Articles

Assessment of the effects of projected climate change on the potential risk of wood decay in Korea

Future climate change due to global warming could increase the decay risk of wood, which thereby increases the vulnerability of wood buildings to fungal decay. This study intended to understand changes in the potential risk of wood decay due to climate change in Korea and to identify the manner in which climate change presumably influences wooden cultural heritages (WCHs). Scheffer's climate index values for estimating the decay risk of wood exposed outdoors aboveground were calculated using historical climate data (1987–2016) and future climate scenarios (2021–2100). The study employed representative concentration pathway (RCP) scenarios to project the potential risk of wood decay in Korea until the end of 21th century. The results demonstrate that climate change will significantly increase the potential decay risk and resultant vulnerability of WCHs to fungal decay by the end of the century, even under RCP 4.5, which is a scenario with reductions. This apparent increase in threat due to climate change denotes that various measures or strategies, such as more frequent inspection and more robust maintenance, should be employed to reduce the vulnerability of WCHs to fungal decay due to climate change.

«The Shriveled Orient Made All Talk About Itself…»: China and Japan in Columns of the Newspaper «Vostochnoye Obozreniye» in the Last Quarter of 21th Century

The article examines the main plotlines and images of Japan and China in the end of 21th century which were modelled and translated to the reading public by one of the most accredited Siberia’s newspaper «Vostochnoye Obozreniye»(«Oriental Review»). The choice of the newspaper for the analysis is determined by three factors: its oriental trend, growing print run and popularity, participation of famous scientists, travelers, public figures in creating the content. In the newspaper editorial board, for the Russian periphery at the Asian border «in the interests of this very periphery it never hampers to learn the neighboring countries,» thus «increasing the horizons», “to renounce the hackneyed prejudices and the fear to be faulted for Asian barbarism». Materials about China and Japan were present almost in each issue, which testifies the newspaper’s permanent interest in the oriental neighbors of the Russian empire. With general eurocentrism of relations to Japan and China, a dichotomy was kept in regard of several plotlines: he militant and reformative potentials, the role in international policy. Depending on historical circumstances, some or other features grew stronger, often being hypertrophied in mass consciousness or, vice versa, «being dissolved» in generalized images and stereotypes of the oriental (Asian) world. The dichotomy of the Orient’s two images — the progressive, dynamically Europeanizing Japan and the fossilized, obstinate in its conservatism China — became a stable stereotype for «Vostochnoye Obozreniye», too. The government of Japan and the government of China were also contradistinguished in their reformative potentials and methods of governance. In general, the newspaper assessed the military, political, civil experience of the Japanese authorities more complementary than the Chinese governors and officials. The newspaper did nor model and did not translate the image of the enemy but took into account the potential geopolitical danger of the eastern neighbors.

Snowmelt runoff prediction under changing climate in the Himalayan cryosphere: A case of Gilgit River Basin

There are serious concerns of rise in temperatures over snowy and glacierized Himalayan region that may eventually affect future river flows of Indus river system. It is therefore necessary to predict snow and glacier melt runoff to manage future water resource of Upper Indus Basin (UIB). The snowmelt runoff model (SRM) coupled with MODIS remote sensing data was employed in this study to predict daily discharges of Gilgit River in the Karakoram Range. The SRM was calibrated successfully and then simulation was made over four years i.e. 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010 achieving coefficient of model efficiency of 0.96, 0.86, 0.9 and 0.94 respectively. The scenarios of precipitation and mean temperature developed from regional climate model PRECIS were used in SRM model to predict future flows of Gilgit River. The increase of 3 °C in mean annual temperature by the end of 21th century may result in increase of 35–40% in Gilgit River flows. The expected increase in the surface runoff from the snow and glacier melt demands better water conservation and management for irrigation and hydel-power generation in the Indus basin in future.

Dignificación y liberación de lo humano diverso

At the end of 21th Century, as result of the implementation of neoliberal policies, Costa Rica experienced an integral modification of the relations and social conditions of life; the relation structural-superstructural that supported the traditional scenario of daily life suffered a decline. The old and solid world of Costa Ricans lost his certainties. Uncertainty seizes existence. The centralization of meanings that supported life, thinking and the way people values hegemonies, lost compressibil- ity and coherence. This produced the consolidation of age groups, women, indigenous, emigrants and homosexuals as acting agents in a new scenario of daily life. For Costa Rican philosophy, the emergence of this new actors and human relations represents a challenge to develop a new type of philosophy: a hermeneutic of diversities. This new philosophy must configure a new social common sense, which integrate and dignifies people.